It appears from my word counter that I have written in
excess of 25,000 words in this blog since the world cruise began. That is surprising, but very encouraging if I
should try to write the promised book.
It wouldn’t take too long at this rate. The sail in to Borneo was
beautiful, at 12 midday rather than 8 a.m. as revised yesterday. We passed several tiny little islands and
then a stunning coastline, palm trees, misty mountains, buildings on stilts on
the water, blue sky and sunshine just to add to the effect. Temperatures of up to 30C forecast today,
feeling like 35C because of the humidity, so water and more water all day.
We were able to have leisurely breakfast and lunch and get a
bit of a walk in before the trip. When
we left the ship we were greeted by a young woman who put hand crafted brightly
coloures bead necklaces round our necks.
No delays so we got straight on to our coach at 2 p.m. for a 2:15 start.
The drive to the country took half an hour through the town, during which the
major landmarks were pointed out. We
were treated to a fascinating talk about tribal history and the origins of the
longhouses we would be invited into, and the tribal differences in the
accommodation and cultural practices. We
arrived and were warmly greeted before we began walking around the houses where
we experienced honey tasting (from non-stinging tiny bees looking like flies),
a cookery demonstration, a rice husking, rice wine making demonstration and
tasting, music and dance, including one item with audience participation, and
henna tattooing.
 |
| My favourite Borneo Brochure Pic |
Mercifully there’s no head hunting in Borneo any more, but
enough mentions of it to realise it’s not that long since chopping off heads
was commonplace, and plenty of skulls hanging about the ceilings. I won’t dwell
on that too much though
Part of our snack was called a cookie but nothing like any
cookie I have ever eaten. It was made from rice flour mixed with sugar and
water into a batter. It was then poured
through a pierced coconut shell colander into hot fat making a mesh-like
pancake. This was folded in half, then
half again then half again into a triangular shaped pillow. Its consistency was
like shredded wheat but tasting of rice. These were still warm when we ate them
and really delicious. The other parts of
our snack were finely sliced, salted then deep fried bananas and a deep fried
shrimp snack. Very different, fried trend.
Both tour guides were lovely, one was very young and spoke
perfect English, one a slightly older family man. Both were very clear about
the importance of tourism not just for the economy but for reviving an interest
in heritage for the young people and opening up new career opportunities
indirectly through tourism.
We have already eaten a fabulous dinner and are now taking
it easy in the cabin with feet up tonight before our sea day tomorrow which is
on the way to Manila in the Philippines on 9/3/2015, followed by 2 sea days. The last two stops on this third sector (of 5 sectors) after
Manila are Shanghai 12/3/2015 and Hong Kong 15/3/2015. We don’t have any p&o trips booked for
those three cities, so we are going to watch the presentations and choose to do
something independently if we can, which incorporates a wi-fi stop so we can
share our most recent pics and maybe even videos.
Back soon x
No comments:
Post a Comment